Generally, an electronic device is designed to store, in a casing, a circuit board unit on which a variety of electronic components are mounted. Since power is supplied to activate the circuit components mounted on the circuit board included in the circuit board unit, a power connector is mounted on the circuit board, and the power connector is connected to a counterpart connector disposed in the tip of a power cable connected to an AC adaptor.
Although the connector is directly mounted on the circuit board through a soldering process or the like, errors or abnormality may occur in operation when the cable connected to a counterpart connector is pulled or when the counterpart connector is hit by something, which gives an impact on the connector mounted on the circuit board, thereby removing the connector from the circuit board. In order to address this problem, a reinforcing clamp supporting the connector can be secured to the circuit board after the connector is fixed on the circuit board through a soldering process or the like. This makes it possible to remarkably reduce errors caused by the connector on the circuit board. However, since a number of electronic components are densely disposed in an area of the circuit board, it is not affordable to allocate a large space only for reinforcement. Therefore, even such a conventional reinforcing clamp cannot guarantee sufficient reduction of errors in the connector.
Examples of a heat sink having a connector are disclosed, for example, in Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2003-152419, Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 06-245542, and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 06-252574. In some cases, a heat sink for cooling the heat-generating electronic components is provided on the circuit board. However, the heat sink also becomes hot as it absorbs the heat from the heat-generating electronic components, possibly resulting in a deformation of the connector. In addition, in the case where a connector is to be mated with another external connector like the power connector described above, the heat sink needs to be arranged next to an inner wall of the casing of the electronic device. Therefore, a portion of the casing where the heat sink is arranged becomes hot. This would cause problems such as deterioration of the casing or making a user feel unpleasantly hot when he/she touches that portion.